SIR – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s assertion that global equity bubbles keep going until the Federal Reserve kills them (“This epic Wall Street boom is not over yet”, Business, November 10) sits oddly with both the 2008 and 2020 global stock market crashes.
Those major crashes occurred at times when the Fed was reducing interest rates. They were triggered by the unwinding of US housing market excesses in 2008, and by the Covid pandemic in 2020.
Today, at a time when seven AI-related companies account for one third of the S&P 500’s overall value, all it might take for the US stock market bubble to burst would be for a few roadblocks to be erected in the way of future AI investment.
Following last week’s US midterm elections, which revealed strong public opposition to data centers and wrested control of both houses from President Trump, we might not need to wait for the Fed to raise interest rates aggressively for the equity bubble to burst.
